Why do cats drink milk more often?

[zainasghar47]

So i have been curious to know why cats like milk so much? after a thorough research over the internet i found some articles which explained this well enough.  Actually i didn't knew if cow milk is even good for my cats as usually i feed them ( almost every day),

And to my surprise i got to know that cats can even be allergic to milk (lactose intolerant) , and something similar even i noticed when one of cats was vomiting continuously.

Moving forward ,I would like to know what do you guys have ever thought about the reason behind cats loving milk so much?

So start droping your opinions , let's have some fun. 

[kerbiloid]

Cuz they can, and they are lazy. It smells edible and doesn't need to be chewed.

For me, it's even strange to see that somebody finds it strange, because at least in Russia "cats" and "milk" are almost synonyms.

 

The lactose intolerance is not an allergy, it's a lack of digestive enzyme splitting the lactose contained in the milk.
Its presence/absence in adult age is totally defined by the genes.

Originally, mammals produce this enzyme in childhood.
Getting adult, their hormones start suppressing its production, so most of adult mammals can't split the lactose,

If a lactose intolerant person had drink a bottle of milk, he/she just doesn't digest it.
Instead his/her intestine bacteria have a feast consuming this lactose for free and producing a lot of waste gases, chemically inert but mechanically inflating the stomach and asking to get out.
A new bottle rocketeer is born.

So, if somebody is lactose intolerant, you can smell the problem very soon, and it's first of all diarrhea, while the vomit is secondary (the food can't follow its direct way due to the opposing force and asks back to fresh air).
If the cat is just vomiting, it's not a lactose intolerance, it's some another problem, and unlikely caused by the milk.
If a cat drinks milk without diarrhea, I believe it has happily digested the lactose leaving nothing to the bacteria. So, they let you know.

 

While herding and milking were invented in Middle East, the lactose tolerance appeared in North Eurasia after herding was implemented, several thousand years ago.
The mutation causing not to stop producing the lactose-digesting enzyme  after childhood was not essential in the South, but appeared to be very useful for survival in cold and dark climate with lack of fresh food, vitamines, and sunlight.

In the South they can just put the milk for several weeks and wait while it becomes a cheese.
In the North they are too hungry to wait, and it's too cold to allow proper cheesing.
So, in the North they mostly produce  sour milk and quark rather than cheese.
A hungry Northern peasant  happily equipped with the lactose tolerance mutation was able to not wait and spend efforts even on this. He/she was just drinking the fresh milk right from the cow.
This skill was giving him/her a significant benefit in health and survivability of this person and its descendants.
As a result, most of Northern Europeans, such as Slavs and Germans, happily drink fresh milk all their life, while Southern people more often can't do that and either drink sour milk or eat cheese.

As the cats living in the Northern Eurasia were strongly depending on the human food stock, so their winter diet was consisting of mice and what they can steal in a peasant's barn.
As the most common thing to be stolen or gifted was obviously a pot of milk, so the cats, having similar mutation and able to digest lactose in adulthood, had a life-essential advantage over other cats who didn't,
So, fresh milk is a traditional food of North Eurasian cats, and they don't know that some people think that's not so
(Like our local Siamese who was doing it for all her 18 years).

Edited March 31, 2021 by kerbiloid

[TheSaint]

I don't think our cat has ever drank milk. Of course, we've never put it down for her. She eats dry cat food. (A LOT of dry cat food. For her size, this cat eats.) And she, well, supplements, her diet from the outside world quite a bit as well. I've watched through the patio window as she put down an entire mouse, bones and all. Just left a damp spot on the pavers. Murder floof.

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, TheSaint said:

I don't think our cat has ever drank milk. Of course, we've never put it down for her. She eats dry cat food. (A LOT of dry cat food. For her size, this cat eats.) And she, well, supplements, her diet from the outside world quite a bit as well. I've watched through the patio window as she put down an entire mouse, bones and all. Just left a damp spot on the pavers. Murder floof.

She's so angry because wants milk, and you don't give it.

[pincushionman]

I’ve never given my cats milk, and I’m not willing to try. They already turn up their noses at any kind of people food they’re offered.

[kerbiloid]

I strongly believe that "human food is not for animals" is just a manipulative slogan of pet food manufacturers.

Of course, the milled and outdated wastes of meat and milk industry are more healthy for the pets than the best parts eaten by humans, who may have a doubt.
(Like if in "wild nature" they eat different meat.)
Because there is a smiling cat picture on the bag and best paid expert promises.

The pets were eating human food (when succeeded to steal it or when it was given by the "owners") for thousands of years, and live several times longer than their wild counterparts, who live bright, die young.
In "wild nature" ^(tm) cats live for five years (street cats - about two years), while the domestic pets are suffering for 20 years and longer eating the unnatural human food.
And it would take a time to find a forest cat, while in cities they arer common, even when most of them eat not just "human food", by found human food wastes.

The same with milk.
I agree that it maybe (not sure) would be a bad idea to feed with milk, say, manul, who never lived in human livestock and probably just isn't adapted.
But all tens of cats known for me in my life were appreciating the "human food" very much and lived long if not hit by a car, bit by dogs, or poisoned by humans.

Especially funny look the videos were they recommend to feed cats with a mix of liver and boiled pumpkins, because "human food is not for animals".

Also in "wild nature" cats don't eat vegetables which they put into the "cat food", just semi-digested crops contained inside the eaten mice.
This, however, doesn't stop cats from falling in love with cantaloupes and canned corn.

Edited April 1, 2021 by kerbiloid

[YNM]

idk, the sole time I gave milk to cats here was when we had one that gave birth to a few kittens, and even then only the kittens drank them. Still think that most adult cats, esp. feral ones, won't drink milk.

What amazes me more however is that I got one feral cat (well, barely 'feral' since the campus have quite the cat lovers) to eat bread. I originally thought that they'd leave it off after sniffing it, was kinda trying to give false hope by tearing off my bread (yes, I'm sinful I suppose), but they ended up eating like half the bread (I kept tearing bits off mine while I ate it), only stopping once I tear off the bit I already bite.

23 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

On 3/31/2021 at 11:30 PM, TheSaint said:

I've watched through the patio window as she put down an entire mouse, bones and all. Just left a damp spot on the pavers. Murder floof.

She's so angry because wants milk, and you don't give it.

Nah, it's just how they are. Better house cats that can catch mouse than feral ones which gets frightened by the massive rat moles here...

Edited April 1, 2021 by YNM

[TheSaint]

3 minutes ago, YNM said:

idk, the sole time I gave milk to cats here was when we had one that gave birth to a few kittens, and even then only the kittens drank them. Still think that most adult cats, esp. feral ones, won't drink milk.

What amazes me more however is that I got one feral cat (well, barely 'feral' since the campus have quite the cat lovers) to eat bread.

Nah, it's just how they are. Better house cats that can catch mouse than feral ones which gets frightened by the massive rat moles here...

She caught a bunny again this morning, big one. Brought it into the house still alive. We woke up to my daughter screaming about it at 6:00 this morning. Stupid cat.

[YNM]

4 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

woke up to my daughter screaming about it at 6:00 this morning. Stupid cat.

idk, maybe time for your daughter to learn the true cruelty of the nature.

[TheSaint]

2 minutes ago, YNM said:

idk, maybe time for your daughter to learn the true cruelty of the nature.

Oh, this is nothing new to her. The cat has been doing stuff like this for years. It just startled her running around her bedroom floor.

Maybe I can train the dog to just pick up whatever the cat brings in and take it outside....

[YNM]

10 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Oh, this is nothing new to her. The cat has been doing stuff like this for years. It just startled her running around her bedroom floor.

Ah... Well, you have to start excluding the cat away from that area. Might even get a bit physical in shooing it away from the place. Cats are as stubborn as dogs once they think they rule the place (except cats doesn't need to be told they rule or don't rule the place, they start with the assumption that they do rule everything).

Yeah I'm sadly not as friendly to cats anymore ever since I had my lunch eaten by one...

Edited April 1, 2021 by YNM

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, TheSaint said:

Maybe I can train the dog to just pick up whatever the cat brings in and take it outside....

With such cat you may stop hunting yourself. She will do it for you.
Maybe not a deer, but daily.
Just chain her from time to time to let the surrounding fauna resurrect.

P.S.
It's the "Dumb Cat", right?

Probably, it's a real Dumb Buster.

59 minutes ago, YNM said:

Yeah I'm sadly not as friendly to cats anymore ever since I had my lunch eaten by one...

At least, they aren't interested in a wallet.

Edited April 1, 2021 by kerbiloid

[Starhelperdude]

idk, mine eats cake and bread too so idk xD cats are strange carnivores

my cat drinks unregularily but she has no problems with cowmilk 

 

( I don't feed her bread and cake, she steals it)

also with unregulary I mean milk, she has enough water through drinking water and through her food

[DDE]

12 hours ago, Starhelperdude said:

idk, mine eats cake and bread too so idk xD

LMAO, mine is also mad about potatoes and beans.

I think ultimately it's just curiosity and smells.

Meanwhile, the "cats love fish" stereotype is actively harmful - kidney stones are the result of such a diet. Still ended up, ahem, getting volunteered to share a piece yesterday, right in front of my face.

[kerbiloid]

Cantaloupes, canned corn, and marrow squash caviar were cult meals of ours.

Also two known cats were very much fond of borscht. Literally, eating it with its boiled cabbage, carrot and other ingredients.

Edited April 2, 2021 by kerbiloid

[Gargamel]

3 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Also two known cats were very much fond of borscht. Literally, eating it with its boiled cabbage, carrot and other ingredients.

I can understand that.... borscht is good, although it's been some time since I've had any. 

[YNM]

7 hours ago, DDE said:

Meanwhile, the "cats love fish" stereotype is actively harmful - kidney stones are the result of such a diet.

idk, the feral ones here gather round the grocers for fish innards when there were still a lot of them around selling fish and other produces (no meat though).

[Nuke]

you really shouldnt. cats cant digest the stuff. you are just going to make your litter box problems worse. if you must, give them kitten formula instead. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Nuke